Seven Month Snapshot: Alexandra

I cannot believe it is already time again to do another post, Alex’s seventh month blog post!  Our little girl is literally growing and changing overnight and she is looking older these days, too!  The theme summed up in one word this month, however, is ailment.  Alex caught her first bad cold and cough, and Doug had an incredibly vile flu-like virus, where he was sick for half a month.  We did everything possible so that Alex and I did not catch what Doug had and, fortunately, it worked!  We are happy to be on the road to recovery with everyone in our house!  Due to the sickness in our home, I did not get to photograph as much as usual, as I was the full-time provider for Alex, when I was home, and we did not leave the house as much, as a result.  Fortunately, Alex is sleeping the best that she ever has!  She is no longer in the Dock-A-Tot and she is not using any swaddles!  She is now using a sleep sack!  She is rolling and spinning around all over her crib, and we lowered her crib mattress recently!  She seems to be a tummy sleeper, too, and she even sleeps with her bottom in the air!  She is sleeping through the night for the most part; and she is only getting up about once to eat and to get her diaper changed, periodically.  She is doing pretty well with her sleep, thankfully, and it is really helping us to get more rest at night, which we really need!  She is sitting up on her own and she is moving right along with her eating as well.  She really loves vanilla yogurt, her teething crackers, and she is trying a variety of new foods!

She is doing really well at her play school, which we are extremely pleased about!  Alex has had some fun ‘play dates’ as well this month!  She is also enjoying her ‘big girl’ stroller seat and footmuff on her Bugaboo Fox!  We were able to get out for a few stroller rides, this month, when the weather was nice, which she enjoyed and she even fell asleep most of the time!  She still loves her Ergo, too, although she is getting heavy for me to carry on long walks in her Ergo!  Since Alex is so long, growing like a weed, we ordered her ‘big girl’ car seats!  Alex and Victory are bonding more, and they are quite the pair!  Alex is more aware of Victory and she lights up each time she sees Victory!  Alex especially loves to give Victory treats, and she loves to hug and pet Victory!  Victory is pretty tolerant most of the time, thankfully!  Victory still comes into Alex’s nursery each morning and evening to check on Alex and get some treats, of course!  Victory knows the word ‘sister’ and, consequently, she knows that Alex is her sister!  We love our girls and we are embracing it all, and we feel extremely blessed!

A few highlights from Alex’s seventh month include:

-she is sleeping in her crib in her sleep sack, and she is doing pretty well putting herself to sleep and back to sleep!

-she is sitting up on her own and grabbing everything in sight and putting objects into her mouth!

-we have started the baby proofing process in our house; and have most of the baby proofing gear picked out and ready to finish ordering.

-she is still making lots of different sounds and she loves to talk to herself in her crib in the evenings and in the mornings!

-she is ‘throwing raspberries’ constantly, and she thinks it is hilarious!

-she has learned to take her paci in and out of her mouth on her own!

-she still loves to be read to each day!

-she loves listening to music!

-she still finds the mirror to be very captivating and intriguing!

-she loves to play with her toys and loves when her Daddy builds her a tower, which she quickly knocks down!

-she is enjoying eating and trying new foods and she is learning how to chew/eat her teething crackers!

-she loves her jumper and we had to change the height on it recently because she is growing so quickly!

-she is still very alert and observant!  She loves to play with other kids and observe them!

-she still loves her swing, and she takes at least one nap in it daily, typically!  (I am not sure what we are going to do when she outgrows her swing — just a few pounds to go!)

 

A few highlights I would like to remember:

-photographing and making videos of Alex — I want to remember and capture as much as I can!

-enjoying Alex’s laugh/chuckle!  She always laughs when she is tickled or when she is thrown up in the air and caught — she loves this!

-enjoying picking Alex up from her play school and having Alex give me my first hug from her at a recent pick up!

-enjoying cuddling with Alex right before bed in the evenings!

-greeting Alex in her nursery in the mornings!  One of my favorite times, and Victory always joins us!

-looking forward to our first Valentine’s Day with Alex and Victory!

-loving on her long, velvety soft and smooth body!

-loving how she smells after a bath!

-loving how her hair is so fluffy and soft against my skin!  It keeps growing and it looks like it is going to be relatively thick!

-watching her ride, with a big smile, on her Daddy’s shoulders, which she loves!

-watching her eat her first foods, which has been fun to witness!

-watching her greet Victory in the morning and her Daddy in the evenings during the week after work!

-watching her explore her environment!

-remembering how intrigued Alex is with my face — she loves to look at it and touch it, along with pulling on my hair.

-remembering (this was not funny at the time for us) when Alex took a big poop in her jumper and I found her literally covered in and jumping in her poop!  What a sight and a big mess to clean up!  Alex was still smiling, though!

-remembering that she loves (prefers) to be naked, in her diaper, at home!

-remembering her sticking her tongue out to feel her two lower chompers!

-remembering while she has a bottle how she loves to run her hands through her hair!

-remembering how peaceful she looks while she is sleeping, and how she loves to sleep on her tummy with her bottom in the air!

-remembering how she likes to dance while holding our hands to keep her balance!

-giving her a bath without her being so upset, although she still is not in love with bath time!

-enjoying our morning time consisting of: play time and story tine together, a time when baby Alex is very animated and she is generally in a really good mood, and now Victory joins us, which makes it even better!

-marveling at her smile — she has the most wonderful smile that melts our hearts, and her little lower chompers now show when she smiles!

-admiring her eyes — they are the prettiest deep blue eyes I have ever seen!

-loving her long and lovely dark eye lashes!

-loving her rosy red cheeks!

-enjoying the beautiful morning light in Alex’s nursery each morning!

-staying in our pajamas for days, not leaving the house!

-knowing how much our little Victory affectionately loves her ‘little sister!’

-knowing on the days that I feel totally exhausted, that I will someday really miss these early days, and I need to remind myself, at times of this fact.

-still asking myself what will I miss about this time of my life when it’s all gone?  This question keeps everything in perspective.

-most of all, we are cherishing getting to be Alex’s parents!

Doug and I are very grateful for our little girl and our little family!  We feel so fortunate.  We look forward to seeing Alex’s little personality continue to develop and unfold.  Below are a few images: Alex’s monthly portrait; Alex and Victory’s monthly portrait; followed by photos of Alex throughout this month; and some iphone images during her seventh month with us!  You can read our birth story along with viewing images from Alex’s birth here; you can read Alex’s one month snapshot here; her two month snapshot here; her three month snapshot here; her four month snapshot here; her five month snapshot here; and her six month snapshot here.

It has been quite a bit of work keeping up with Alex’s monthly photos; printing of the images; creating her photo book for her first year; creating blog posts; and writing Promptly Journal entries.  However, this time will only happen once, and we want to record and remember it, so we are going to keep going with this process through the first year, where so many changes occur, sometimes seemingly over night!

 

 

See how much Alex has grown as compared to last month!

 

 

See how much Alex has grown as compared to last month!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A few iphone images from this month!

 

 

A fun video!